Observations from a New Perch

Note: Wrote this post a while ago. This is actually what I was doing exactly a month ago. I’ll (hopefully) post about what I’ve been up to here at Iracambi after this.

My last full day in Rio commenced with an improbable reunion with an old friend. Turns out a friend I met when I spent a few weeks in Bolivia in summer 2009 lives in Rio and works 4 blocks away from my hostel, so we met up and spent the morning together. Got to catch up on life and learn more about what it’s like to live in Rio. Met back up with the others, grabbed a blended Açaí (a new food obsession), and hopped on the subway to Parque de Flamengo to check out Cupula dos Povos (The Peoples’ Summit), a Rio +20 event put on by NGOs and indigenous tribes and organizations from Brazil and around the Americas. I approached Parque de Flamengo expecting (not actually) to find a park full of flamingos. When we arrived, it seemed the anticipated flamingos had been driven out by gangs of cats. Not even a pink feather in sight. These cats knew their hood, stalking around like they owned the place. They seemed to have taken over a little corner of their park – probably their operation headquarters. Reminded me of the Aristocats. Despite witnessing this obvious center of activity, we proceeded to join the throngs of people surrounding the booths of the event. Many people wore colorful costumes, and music and dancing livened up the scene. We browsed different stands, some giving information about NGOs and environmental issues, others displaying and selling crafts made by the indigenous. We attempted to join The Peoples’ March that was happening in the area, but failed due to distance and cramped stomachs. Liz made it via taxi and reported it was awesome – tens of thousands of people marching, many dancing in costume. She also happened to run into the guy from Pomona who we’d been trying to meet up with. Further proves my point that Rio is actually a small town.

When we finished exploring the booths, buying souvenirs/yummy things, marveling at the awesome trees in the park and enjoying the beautiful view of Pão de Açúcar above the water, we headed back to the subway station to return to the hostel. Just as Sasha, Carole and I were heading into the station, we saw Georgia and Emma (who we had lost hours ago) heading in at the exact same time. We deduced that there is a special magnetic field between the members of our little adventure group, because the rate of our convergence when separated was incredible (we didn’t have cellphones).

We got back to the hostel and I got to witness the most impressive bitch-out I’ve ever seen. A woman from São Paulo was frustrated with the hostel for changing her reservation and for the lack of hot water, so after ranting to us for a while, she called the hostel employee up to the room and went non-stop for about fifteen minutes. I didn’t understand much of her angry Portuguese, and I also didn’t understand how she could string so many words together for so long. I want to see this girl in a freestyle rap battle with Nikki Minaj. That evening we went to a delicious Brazilian Restaurant in Ipanema called Bartholomeu and met up with some friends, including Danny Schwartz! Always fun to see friends from home in different countries. It was a fun, delicious dinner. The Portugal vs. Czech Republic Euro Cup soccer game was happening, resulting in excitement and uproar in the restaurant when a goal was scored (Portugal won). We returned to the hostel and sipped some Guaranas at the bar, then called it a night because everything we wanted to do was too far away/expensive and we had to rise early to catch our buses back to Iracambi the next morning.

That night in the hostel there was only one bed left so Sasha and I sneakily shared it. We were moved to a coed room, which was significantly less pleasant. Snoring, stench, drunk men stumbling in late at night… At around 4 am some drunk dude came back and insisted that a bed that a woman was sleeping in was his. She produced her hostel card with that bed number on it, and he didn’t even have his hostel card, but he made a huge fuss and made her move beds (she had already been sleeping there for like 6 hours). In the process he woke up the whole room (and by “process,” I mean a half-hour argument). My clever alliteration for this day’s hostel events: Histrionic hostel happenings.

More on Cupula dos Povos:

http://cupuladospovos.org.br/en/2012/07/final-declaration-of-the-peoples-summit-at-rio20/

Day 5 – Até logo, Rio

We enjoyed our last hostel breakfast and caught a bus to the Rodoviária (bus station). Based on instructions from the hostel people, it would take 40 minutes to get there, so we had plenty of time cushion. Well over an hour had passed, and we were still on the bus. After enjoying classic waterfront scenes of Rio from the bus windows, we found ourselves winding through narrow favela streets. The bus stopped at the janky favela rodoviária (not the one we wanted), and we exchanged glances of horror. We (thankfully) decided to stay on the bus, and eventually ended up at the correct bus station (the hostel had sent us to the right one after all). We barely missed the earlier bus to Muriae, so we caught the later one, leaving us time to gorge on delicious pão de batata and pão de queijo (TOTALLY worth it).

The combination of my satisfied belly and the comfortable bus seats (they tip back impressively far) brought me to a slumber that carried me through the 7 hours of bus rides. I wouldn’t know if I missed 5 drug busts. The part you are all waiting in suspense for: We made it back to Iracambi alive.